Apple’s WWDC 2023 keynote was filled with huge announcements, but amidst all the excitement was something of a surprise sleeper hit. The tech giant announced it’s working on a Game Porting Toolkit for developers to port their games to Mac. Turns out, this tool allows you to play hitherto inaccessible Windows games like Diablo 4 and Cyberpunk 2077 on macOS right now.
The company went into more detail on the Game Porting Toolkit during its Platforms State of the Union livesteam, in which Apple showed a Mac playing The Medium with this new software running. What’s so crazy about that? Well, The Medium uses DirectX 12, and it’s built on Unreal Engine 4, and it supports ray tracing. That opens the door for hundreds of the latest and greatest titles to be played on macOS. Until now, DirectX 12’s been a big stumbling block to getting Windows games running on Mac computers, so this is a huge breakthrough.
The other exciting news is that this tool’s open source, meaning developers can do the hard work of getting games running on macOS for you. It didn’t take long after Apple’s announcement for people to try out this new tool for themselves. Twitter user isaacmarovitz got Cyberpunk 2077 running at Ultra on their M1 MacBook Pro 16GB. Yes, it was at a pitiful 14 fps, but that’s still a huge development.
Apple’s new tool could allow scores of triple-A titles to be played on Mac devices, and developers have already got Elden Ring and Diablo 4 working at decent levels of performance. Github senior dev advocate Christina Warren summed up the news as “massive”, and that Apple’s new tool is “essentially Proton but for MacOS.” Proton being the compatibility layer Valve designed to get Windows games running on the Steam Deck.
If you’re a Mac owner planning to dive into Diablo 4 after this announcement, make sure you check out our best Diablo 4 builds guide to help you face down the legions of hell without fear. It might also be worth your while to have a peek at our guide to the best PC games on the market, since you’re actually able to play them now.